A breach of trust: Teachers having sex with students

Hianna Sheely was shocked last year when she heard that a teacher at Colerain High, the same district where her children go to school, was arrested for having sexual contact with a student.

Sheely felt let down. The head of the Northwest High booster club wondered how it could happen and what administrators at the Northwest Local School District – which includes Colerain and Northwest high schools – would do about it.

Then it happened again, this time at Northwest High where her children attend.

And then again.

Three times in the same school district, all within a year.

"It made me mad and it made me sad," Sheely said.

"As parents, we put our trust in these teachers and we expect them to respect our students."

Educators have been charged with having sexual contact with students four times in the last year in Hamilton County and at least nine times in the Cincinnati area since 2010.

Kenneth Goodin, 28. A teacher at Northwest High, he is accused of sexual battery in a May 16 incident with an 18-year-old student. A math teacher and soccer and bowling coach at Northwest, Goodin resigned in June and was indicted in July. His charge carries a maximum prison sentence of five years. His case is next in court Aug. 21.(Photo: Provided)

"We've got some teachers in this country who have lost their minds," said Terry Abbott, the chief of staff for the U.S. Department of Education in 2001 and former spokesman for the country's seventh-largest school district in Houston. He now owns a public relations firm that tracks cases of educators accused or convicted of sexual contact with students.

While Abbott admits his research isn't exact — it's based on media accounts of such cases — he has found 460 such cases in the U.S. from Jan. 1 through Aug. 10. Of those, almost two-thirds of the teachers were male; the average age of the accused teacher was 35.

"I think we're looking at a national epidemic," Abbott added.

Critics suggest that as many as one in 10 U.S. public school students — or about 4.5 million children — are involved in some kind of inappropriate teacher-student relationship.

But it's not easy to identify — accusations involve everything from physical contact to inappropriate comments or looks — and can have a crippling effect not only on those involved but on the student body and their parents and educators.

"It's devastating to the rest of our students," said Dan Unger, president of the Northwest Local School District Board of Education. Two of the three teachers from his district have already been convicted and this year imprisoned. The third case is pending.

"When (the other students) think about the accomplishments of the class of 2014, they'll think about that. This is what they will remember," Unger said.

It's become easier in a digital world where smart phones can dominate conversation, for teachers and students to communicate. That's good when it's used to discuss school work. But sometimes it can turn criminal.

"The biggest reason this occurs now is social media," Abbott said.